THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: Two of the most powerful figures in the church today united to launch a stinging attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury after his comments on sharia law.
As pressure mounted on Dr Rowan Williams, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, insisted that migrants must obey the British legal system.
Meanwhile, Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, claimed any adoption of sharia would be "disastrous" for Britain.
He went on: "He (Dr Williams) has overstated the case for accommodating Islamic legal codes.
"His conclusion that Britain will eventually have to concede some place in law for aspects of sharia is a view I cannot share.
"There can be no exceptions to the laws of our land which have been so painfully honed by the struggle for democracy and human rights."
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Lord Carey went on to claim multiculturism had created Islamic ghettos and that the introduction of sharia would only lead to more demands from the Muslim community.
"This is absolutely inevitable, since questions to do with the separation of 'church and state' are largely new to Islam. Sharia law trumps civil law every time," he wrote.
"Many Muslim interpreters of sharia believe that it supersedes secular law and assume that its 'God-given' status would lead to the point of eventually replacing civil law." Two of the most powerful clergy in Britain launch stinging attack on Archbishop over sharia row >>>
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